Guides and databases: Reference management software: What is reference management software

What is Reference Management Software?

Reference management software enables you to:

collect references;
store references and notes;
organise references;
format references in a required referencing style to create a bibliography;
insert in-text citations into a document as you type. This will also generate a reference list or bibliography at the end of your document, based on those citations.

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Some packages also have further features: 

social networking;
annotation and highlighting tools within PDFs of resources;
sharing and collaboration tools.

Reference management software packges (also known as reference / citation managers) are web-based. Some packages also have a desktop version that allows more functionality.

Reference management software is most useful for users who are undertaking:

UCL Library Services has a wealth of expertise in using reference management software, and provides extensive support through training sessions and short troubleshooting sessions.

View our full programme of reference management training sessions.

Reference management software packages

Reference management software packages supported at UCL are:

EndNote
Online guide to using EndNote
Mendeley
Online guide to using Mendeley
Zotero
Online guide to using Zotero

There are other freely available and paid options, for which UCL Library Services does not provide support, including:

Sciwheel
UCL subscribes to Sciwheel as part of our subscription to Faculty Opinions. To access you must be on the UCL network or VPN or link to Faculty Opinions via our databases list.
Sciwheel help guide
Help guide from SciWheel. Create a SciWheel account to access.

Reference Management software training

View our full calendar and make a booking

Which software should I use?

Which reference management software should I use?
This LibrarySkills@UCL tool asks you a series of questions to provide you with some recommendations as to which reference management software might be most suitable for your purposes, based on applications supported at UCL. Completing the tool takes just a couple of minutes. This tool is in a pilot phase. We appreciate your feedback and invite you to answer a couple of questions at the end to help make the tool better.

Related guides

Applying reference styles

Reference management software encourages you to be consistent with your referencing, applying the same style to all reference types (books, journal articles, websites, etc.), and applying the same rules of referencing, as defined by the particular style (Harvard, Vancouver, etc).